INTERVIEW: Ben Rector Shows Hometown & What Inspired Him To Pursue Music

Ben Rector has been writing and recording music for ten years now. In that time, he's released six studio albums (many of them independently), one live album from a Denver show, three EPs, toured with artists like Dave Barnes and Five for Fighting. Ben has also had the honor of winning the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, in addition other impressive milestones. All of his hard work has paid off as Ben's latest album Brand New, which was released in August 2015, has shot up to the top 10 of multiple Billboard Charts and features his single of the same name. Ben recently shared his story with iHeartRadio through our Artist Stories series, where we got a first-hand look at his musical journey.

The 30-year-old singer songwriter comes from south Tulsa, Oklahoma, which he describes as a "great place to grow up." And what you might find surprising about Ben is that, although he has a career in music how and has one a song writing contest, his family isn't musical at all. "My family is not musical. I didn't grow up in a musical home. My dad's a banker, my mom's a psychologist." He adds, "It was a little strange, because I think when I started getting into music, there wasn't a script for me as an artist, or for them as parents."

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On what inspired him to start singing

"I didn't sing at all, until I saw a guy from Tulsa named Ben Kilgore sing at my school. Ben Kilgore had a great voice, and it changed that atmosphere of the room, and I had never seen that before. But I was just like 'What was that?' I want to find and feel that again."

On playing in the Battle of the Bands competition at Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom with his band Euromart

"The guy that I started playing music with went to high school with me. We formed a band for the Tulsa World Battle of the Bands, and we got to play at Cain's Ballroom at our first show. [Cain's Ballroom] is legendary, not just in Oklahoma, just generally legendary. I played my first show here with Euromart. Yes, we should have picked a better name, we did not. We entered the Tulsa World Battle of the Bands, we hilariously made it, we didn't even place, we got to play here and it was so much fun. It was all the kids from all the rival schools were coming and it was built up, it was a huge deal."

On how he wrote his single "Brand New" 

"I wrote and recorded this whole record -- that's an intense process. And then you have a little breath after that, before you're going out and promoting it, and touring. In that little breath, I would write something, because for the first time there's no pressure. And so when I wrote 'Brand New,' it felt like a thesis statement for the record. It was like 'This is what I wanted.'"